Firetrucks, Bees, and America’s Gerontocratic Crisis

Quotes from recent reads: three for everyone and another three for paid AG supporters.

The Old Guard

The prevalence of aged politicians is almost certainly increasing the mass abstention of the young from political participation. The older the politicians, the less credence younger constituents give to the idea that their votes matter. They may even start to doubt the basic worth of the political system and let it fail. A study comparing different countries, including the United States, concluded that the bigger the age gap between people and their politicians, the weaker the population’s confidence in democracy.

In short, it’s not just that our politicians are old. It’s not just the cognitive or bodily decline they suffer. What’s most important is that such leaders represent an aging constituency that controls the political system. They are also the visible face of the elderly’s domination of private forms of power, chiefly wealth: aging Americans control the biggest bank accounts and stock portfolios, partly as a result of living long enough to accumulate more and more without giving much away. The government is bought and paid for by members of the oldest generation, and it is organized for their sake. There is no way to separate the age of our elites from their ascendancy. In America today, age is the modality in which class is lived—­with apologies to the late, great cultural theorist Stuart Hall, who said the same thing about race.

Why Does a Fire Truck Cost $2 Million

For years, the Chicago fire department has struggled to repair and replace its aging fleet of trucks, the priciest of which now come at a cost of $2m+.

And it’s not just in Chicago: Across the fire truck industry, increased consolidation has led to spikes in demand, production delays and sky-high prices, leaving departments nationwide scrambling to provide life-saving services to their citizens.

“There’s a monopoly in the business. They’re taking over,” Cleary says. “Civilians are going to suffer.”

Japan’s New Hypersonic Engine Could Make 2-Hour Flights to the US a Reality

A team of engineers from JAXA, Waseda University, the University of Tokyo, and Keio University has completed a successful ground combustion trial of a ramjet engine designed for a Mach‑5 hypersonic aircraft, a key step toward a future where flights from Tokyo to Los Angeles could take roughly the same time as a short domestic hop. The test was conducted at JAXA’s Kakuda Space Center, simulating flight at five times the speed of sound and focused on validating the aircraft’s heat‑shielding, control surfaces, and engine performance under extreme conditions. The results, and aircraft like NASA’s “quiet” supersonic X-59, may help redefine how engineers think about high‑altitude, high‑speed passenger and even suborbital travel.

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